9 card games worth learning this winter (bridge included, gently)

Every winter someone at our house announces that we should learn a new card game, and every winter we play Gin Rummy until March. This year we did our homework. Here are nine card games for seniors (and anyone else with a table, a deck and a long evening) that are worth learning before the first snow, from two-player classics to games that need the whole family.

For each: how many players, how long it really takes to learn, how it plays, and who ends up hooked. We checked the rules against Pagat, the long-running card game reference site, and the publishers.

Fair warning: nearly every family uses house rules. These are the common versions.

Games

9, from 2 to 8 players

Easiest start

Five Crowns or Gin Rummy

Hardest (worth it)

Bridge

1.Hand and Foot

Players: 4, in two teams, is the classic setup; 2 to 6 works. Time to learn: One evening, plus a second one to stop asking what counts as a book.

Think of it as Canasta after a big breakfast. You shuffle five or six decks together, jokers included, and each player gets two piles of 11 to 13 cards: a hand you play first and a face-down “foot” you can’t touch until the hand is gone.

Teams build “books” of seven cards of the same rank, with twos and jokers wild. Under the common rules a clean book with no wild cards scores 500 points and a dirty one scores 300. The points you need to make your first meld climb each round, from 50 in round one to 150 in round four.

Who will love it: Families and card clubs who want a long, chatty game where one bad hand doesn’t sink you.

2.Canasta

Players: 4, in partnerships (two- and three-player versions exist). Time to learn: Two or three evenings. The scoring is the hard part.

Canasta was invented in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1939 and swept American living rooms in the 1950s, so some of you have a rules sheet in a drawer already. You play with two decks plus four jokers, and each player gets 11 cards.

You lay down melds of three or more cards of a rank, and seven cards make a canasta: 500 points if it’s all natural cards, 300 if it includes wild twos or jokers. Red threes are bonus cards and black threes block the discard pile. Your side needs at least one canasta before anyone can go out, and a game runs to 5,000 points, which is to say several pots of coffee.

Who will love it: Two couples who like playing as partners, and anyone who finds Hand and Foot a bit loose.

3.Cribbage

Players: 2 is best; 3 or 4 works. Time to learn: One evening to play, a whole winter to count a hand without moving your lips.

Each player gets six cards and throws two face down into the “crib,” a bonus hand that belongs to the dealer. Then you take turns laying down cards and calling out a running total that can’t pass 31, scoring as you go for hitting 15, making pairs and building runs. Then each hand is counted along with one shared card turned up from the deck.

Points are tracked by moving pegs along that wooden board with all the holes, and the first to 121 wins. The game is credited to the English poet Sir John Suckling in the early 1600s, and American submarine crews still play it.

Who will love it: Couples, and anyone who adds up the restaurant check in their head. Within a week, “fifteen two, fifteen four” becomes background music.

4.Gin Rummy

Players: 2. Time to learn: About 20 minutes.

Each player gets 10 cards. On your turn you draw one, from the stock or the discard pile, then throw one away, trying to arrange your hand into sets (three or four of a rank) and runs (three or more in a row in one suit).

Leftover cards are called deadwood, with face cards worth 10 and aces worth 1. When your deadwood adds up to 10 or less you can “knock” and end the hand. With no deadwood at all you have gin, and a bonus. Knock too early and your opponent can undercut you, which is exactly as humbling as it sounds.

Who will love it: Anyone who wants a quick game for two that fits in the gap before the evening news.

5.Spite and Malice

Players: 2 (versions for more exist). Time to learn: 15 minutes.

You shuffle two decks together. Each player gets a pay-off pile (20 to 26 cards, depending on whose rules you use) with the top card turned up, plus a hand of five that you refill every turn.

In the middle of the table you both build shared stacks from ace up to queen, and kings are wild. You can also park cards on up to four discard piles of your own. The first player to get rid of the entire pay-off pile wins. If this sounds familiar, Mattel sells a version of it as Skip-Bo.

Who will love it: Couples who enjoy friendly sabotage. Half the fun is playing the card your opponent was waiting for.

6.Euchre

Players: 4, in partnerships. Time to learn: One evening, then a week of forgetting that the left bower is a trump.

Euchre uses only 24 cards, nine through ace, and each player gets five. The dealer turns one card face up, and each player in turn can “order it up,” which makes that suit trump.

The jack of the trump suit (the right bower) is the highest card in the game, and the other jack of the same color (the left bower) is next. The team that picked trump needs three of the five tricks to score a point, and all five for two. If they fall short they’ve been “euchred,” and the other side scores two. First team to 10 wins.

Who will love it: Anyone from the Midwest who has been waiting for this list to get to the point. It’s fast, social and loud.

7.Bridge, gently

Players: 4, in partnerships. Time to learn: The basics in a few lessons. The bidding, the rest of your life.

Each player gets 13 cards, and the hand starts with an auction. Players bid how many tricks above six their side will take and which suit will be trump (or no trump), so “two hearts” promises eight tricks with hearts as trump.

The winner of the auction is the declarer, and the declarer’s partner becomes “dummy,” laying their cards face up so the declarer plays both hands. Then it’s trick-taking: follow suit if you can, and either make your contract or don’t.

Ease in. The American Contract Bridge League offers a free one-hour beginner course called Trickstarter and a directory of teachers and clubs. Minibridge, a teaching version, skips the bidding so you can learn the play first.

Who will love it: The person who does the crossword in pen. Bridge is a lifelong puzzle with a built-in social life.

Agree on your house rules before the first deal, not halfway through the third hand.

8.Five Crowns

Players: 1 to 7, per the box; 3 to 6 is the sweet spot. Time to learn: 10 minutes.

A rummy game with its own 116-card deck: five suits (the usual four plus stars), threes through kings, and six jokers. There are 11 rounds. Round one deals three cards and threes are wild, and each round adds a card and moves the wild card up one, until kings go wild in a 13-card final round.

You build books (same rank) and runs (same suit, in order). When someone goes out, everyone else gets one last turn. Low score wins.

Who will love it: Mixed-age tables. The box says ages 8 and up, so the grandchildren qualify.

9.Shanghai Rummy

Players: 3 to 8. Time to learn: One evening. The first round teaches you.

Shanghai is a contract rummy: every deal has a required combination you must lay down before anything else, a set and a run in one hand, two runs in another, getting harder as the game goes. One common version uses two decks with jokers for up to four players and deals 11 cards over 10 hands.

The fun part is “buying.” When you want a discard and it isn’t your turn, you can claim it, but you also take extra cards from the stock as a penalty. Lowest total after the last hand wins. Every family plays a slightly different version, and every family is sure theirs is the real one.

Who will love it: Big families and holiday crowds who can handle a full table and a little chaos.

Making cards easier on the eyes and hands

Small corner numbers and stiff fingers end more card nights than bad luck does. Some cheap fixes:

• Jumbo index cards. Look for “jumbo index” or “large index” on the box. These are regular-size cards with much bigger numbers and letters in the corners. Bicycle sells one. Oversized cards are a different product, and they get awkward to hold once you have 13 in your hand.
• Four-color decks. Each suit gets its own color, so you’re not squinting to tell clubs from spades. Handy for anyone with low vision.
• Card holders. A wooden or plastic stand holds your hand upright on the table. Essential for Hand and Foot, where you may be holding a fistful, and a relief for anyone with arthritis.
• Automatic shufflers. Battery-powered models handle one or two decks at a time. For multi-deck games, shuffle in batches and mix the stacks by hand.
• Light and contrast. A plain, dark tablecloth and a lamp over the table help more than you’d expect.

Card games for seniors, sorted by your crowd

Start with who will be at the table, learn the easier game first, then graduate.

Whichever you choose, play the first few hands with cards face up and the rules open on the table. Nobody keeps score yet. That comes later, along with the arguments.

Questions readers ask